A Clinical Psychologist's Assessment of
Vern Grimsley and the war messagesNovember 20, 1983

It is important that you read the following disclaimers
before proceed to the attached statement:

1)
It was not within the purview of this paper to derive
recommendations for the Urantia Brotherhood or Foundation with respect to the
situation at issue.

2)
It is beyond the scope of this paper to prove or disprove in a
final or absolute sense, the claims dealt with herein; such matters must always
be ultimately resolved within the definition of one’s personal opinion.

3)
I chose not to apply a diagnostic label in this paper because
I do not feel that such labels can be, in all fairness, applied at this
time. Further, I would probably resist
the future application of diagnostic labels since in my experience they all too
often serve to shortcut thoughtful analyses.
This paper is thus not intended as a “professional diagnostic judgment”,
but as my personal statement of opinion based on my experiences and particular
perspectives.

4)
As a recipient of this paper you have my permission to show it
to others of your choosing. I respect
your judgment; otherwise I wouldn’t have sent you this copy. Please make sure that any other reader also
reads this cover letter. I would hope
that any other readers you select would be persons who are serious students of
the Book, and who exhibit reasonable degrees of level-headedness and balanced
personality. The issue dealt with
herein is highly sensitive; it must be approached wit a sense of fairness and,
hopefully, good judgment. Fairness and
good judgment are rarely exhibited by those who have no prior track record of
exhibiting same.

P. D. K.

This paper concerns itself with alleged messages from
celestial beings as experienced by a long time, highly visible and credible UB
reader, Vern Grimsley. The bases for
this report were (a) lengthy inquiries with several persons who have long known
Vern and have knowledge of the current events, (b) discussions and notes fro
four other persons who personally flew to California to hear Vern speak
directly of these messages, and (c) a personal visit with Vern on November 16th
during which I was accompanied by M. H., a long time UB student fro the
Denver area. I evaluated all these
experiences from my perspective of being a 10-year student of the Book and in
light of 16 years of professional experience as a post-Ph.D. clinical
psychologist.

The reported phenomena were evaluated within two, broad
frames of reference. First, to what
extent could the reported experiences be explained within the context of
current understanding in the field of psychology of psychic phenomena. Second, to what degree are the reported
messages (their content, method and form of deliverance) congruent with what is
known about the methods used in the UB revelations, and, within this second
framework, the degree of congruency wit the major thrusts of the UB teachings
regarding revelations.

From a psychological standpoint, the most obvious
explanation of Vern’s experiences is that of auditory hallucinations. Some qualifying statements are in order
before discussing further the sensitive subject of hallucinations. First, it must be understood that normal and
intelligent persons can and do experience hallucinations. Dr. William S. Sadler discussed this fact in
his classic work, The Mind at Mischief. (1929). He notes, on page 6, that in the study of
the subconscious” . . . we observe that it manifests a creative ability that
includes all the powers of thoughts, fabrication, reasoning, volition, etc.”
and “The elements of the unconscious realms, therefore, include al the ideas
and emotions of our every-day experience, such as fears, doubts, affections,
wishes, resentments, etc., and therefore al the factors are present for the
building up of fictitious fears and false images. . . “ And “In a word, we must
recognize that the subconscious is intelligent; it is adaptable; it is able to
reason, to indulge in constructive thinking, and to utilize all the powers of a
creative imagination. . . “

Psychological research over the past 50 years has indicated
that auditory hallucinations are more common than the visual or visual-auditory
types. A reliable aspect of auditory
hallucinations is that to the person who experiences them the voice or voices
seem more real and certainly more dramatic that the normal speaking voices we
use in ordinary conversation. The
voices are usually perceived as being external to the recipient. Of ten they come from one side or the other,
from above or below. The voices heard I
auditory hallucinations usually command or instruct or console or warn, i.e.,
they speak in a directive, authoritative manner. They rarely discuss; they instead direct. They often speak in short sentences. The voices are strong and real; they often
come unexpectedly and impose themselves on the recipient. Dr. Julian Jaynes in discussing auditory
hallucinations makes the point that “Sound is a very special modality. We cannot handle it. We cannot push it away. … Sound is the least
controllable of all sense modalities…”
(Page 96-97).

Probably the most complex aspect of auditory hallucinations
is their content can appear abstruse or even clairvoyant or indicative of
precognition. In actual fact, however,
when the recipient is well studied it is usually determined that he had prior
access to the knowledge or experiences revealed in his messages. Auditory hallucinations (or what Dr. Sadler
preferred to call the “clairaudient state”) thus represent a person talking to
himself from within the realm of his own subconscious. Buried in the subconscious memory banks are
out experiences, prior knowledge, wishes, fears, etc., most of which rarely
operate at the daily conscious level.
It is not uncommon for these voices to speak to us at a time of stress
when we are grappling with a difficult problem or dilemma.

Now it would be helpful to look at Vern’s first experience
in which he heard a voice speak to him.
That which follows was detailed for me by Vern in our conversation of
November 16th. About a year
ago he awoke one morning with a strong feeling that he must buy a new property
for the F.O.G. He developed a picture
in his mind of what the new property should be like and what it should entail
and encompass. He hired a realtor and
began a search. Then one day the
realtor showed him the property that he subsequently bought. He liked the property right away because it
seemed to fit his conception of what the new home for F.O.G. should be
like. But this was not an easy
decision. This new home would cost
F.O.G. nearly $4 million. Vern was in
an understandable state of consternation as to what to do, but it is clear that
he was strongly attracted to the property.
Vern, in this state of consternation, wandered off by himself and,
suddenly, “out of the blue” (Vern’s words) a voice above him and to his right
speaks commandingly (and tells him what he wants to hear): “this is it.” The difficult decision is thus made for him, his anxiety is
relieved, and the purchase is subsequently made. Many people have had similar experiences and it must be
understood that the voice or voices of our subconscious are truly experienced,
and are commandingly real. Vern’s
experience is a textbook example of an auditory hallucination. Unfortunately, Vern chose to interpret this
voice as that of the gods speaking to him and directing him. Once this interpretation was placed on this
event the foundation was in place for similar experiences to follow. Indeed, given Vern’s personality tendencies
it was almost a foregone conclusion that more voices would be heard subsequent
to the initial voice with its attendant, misplaced interpretation.

Vern then stated that following this first event was a
period of about 7 months during which he received over 100 messages pertaining
to, as he puts it, “personal problems and personal concerns.” These messages were delivered at unexpected
times by voices that spoke strongly, often dramatically, and in short
sentences. They usually addressed Vern
on personal habits, speaking techniques, dietary habits (“eat fruit everyday”),
relaxation and sleep habits, and sometimes attempted to cheer him up out of
periods of despondency. One such
experience that Vern relates, and that he clearly puts a lot of stake in,
relates to a morning a few months ago when he was dejected over the present
state of the world and a voice spoke to him in a humorous way and Vern and the
voice bantered wit each other in a humorous vein. The dialogue between Vern and the voice (whose contributions were
short and specific) was similar to an old Bill Cosby comedy routine between
Noah and God. At least two of Vern’s
oldest friends are confident that Vern would have been exposed to and greatly
enjoyed this old Bill Cosby routine several years ago. Another interesting feature of this
experience is that it is clear that for at least a few months prior to his
“World War III message” of October 6th that Vern was at least
occasionally dejected over current world conditions. (Please note this for later reference.)

The interpretation that Vern puts on these 100-plus messages
is that unseen friends were preparing, grooming and fine-tuning him for his
leadership role in the upcoming planetary crisis. When a person begins to have repeated experiences with voices he
often begins to develop what is called a delusional system by which to explain
these strange occurrences. A delusion
is a set of beliefs, improbable as to their validity that can serve to verify
and justify hallucinatory experiences.
Sometimes it is hard to say which comes first, the delusion or the
hallucinations.

They are often highly egocentric in nature, hence the common
term: “delusions of grandeur.” Vern’s interpretation of the above events is
distressing because it smacks of the beginnings of a delusional system. Vern clearly sees himself as a special
person who has been selected by the unseen powers for a very special leadership
role. He seems to be increasingly
interpretating more and more events within this system of beliefs. For example, this weekend (November 19th-20th)
Vern speaks in Oregon. This engagement
was made months ago. Vern has told at
least one of his old friends that he feels the unseen powers worked to secure
this engagement for him months ago since they knew that this weekend was going
to be the start of World War III and they wanted him to be in one of the safest
areas in case of nuclear attack, namely Oregon. Vern cautioned that he received no message to this effect but
that this was a strongly felt hunch by the “human Vern”. This is characteristic of delusional thinking
wherein seeming coincidences and fortuitous events are interpreted in such a
way as to confirm the delusional belief system. It must also be noted that this recent statement by Vern
indicating that our unseen friends knew months ago the exact weekend when bombs
would fall is in contradiction to some elements of the messages of October 6th
and 11th, in which Vern reported that they did not necessarily know
when World War III would commence.

When I first heard of these messages several persons commented
that they must be true because (a) Vern was told by Christy that he was a
reservist and (b) it was generally understood that the mantle of leadership had
been passed to Christy from Dr. Sadler and then by Christy to Vern. These impressions were checked with Jim
Mills and Martin Myers whom I felt would have good knowledge of any such
statements by Christy. Both gentlemen
had difficulty with the above two statements and could only report that Christy
may have conjectured about Vern being a reservist. On November 16th I asked Vern to comment on this
matter. He replied that “it was true
that in the early 1970’s Christy told me I was in the reserve corps.” He then elaborated on the event: he and Christy were talking about issues
pertaining to the possible publicization of the UB. Christy commented that Vern would now “when the time has come to
publicize the Book” Why? How?
Christy replied, “Because you are in the reserve corps of destiny.” Vern then stated, in answer to my question,
that Christy never again made the statement to him but did mention the matter
to some other people. He was then asked
how Christy could have known of his status.
He responded, “I don’t know, but I think she got the message the same
way I got my messages.” I have since talked
to several persons who knew Christy well and none of them can recall Christy
every saying that she received auditory messages on any topic, at least not
subsequent to 1955 when the last UB revelatory message came through that
finalized instructions on publication of the Book. It seems reasonable to infer that Christy’s statement to Vern was
conjecture on her part. It is clear,
however, from the way Vern recounts this story – his intensity as he discusses
this event – that it had a profound impact on him. The “mantle of leadership” idea appears to have no basis in an
actual event, and thus falls in to the category of conjecture by some people.

We talked at length with Vern about the “World War III
messages of October 6th and 111th. The content of these messages has been made
available to many UB students via first hand discussions with Vern and
subsequent second hand discussions among others. There was no new information presented in our meeting with Vern of
November 16th. A striking
aspect of these messages is that they contain no information that could not
have been readily available to Vern’s subconscious memory banks. Many intelligent, well read persons of today
could have come up with comparable content if asked, let’s say for fun, to
write a “doomsday scenario” for a play or movie. Nevertheless, Vern stated several times during the evening that
the messages caught him unawares; twice he stated, “even I was asleep” as to
the threat of nuclear war. This seemed
odd in light of his other depictions of earlier despondence over the state of
the world (see earlier reference).
Similarly odd were Vern’s comments as to how the “don’t publicize” and
“don’t split up the book” messages confused him and caught him unawares. It is clear that for several years Vern has
been concerned and involved with promotional issues pertaining t the UB. He reported, at one time in the evening,
that in his early years of broadcasting some people put pressure on him to use
radio to promote the Book more aggressively. He resisted these pleas.
Vern generally has taken a conservative posture on promotional issues; a
position that is congruent with the messages he received on these matters. Some other examples could be given but the
upshot of the matter is that no clear evidence could be discerned that the
content of any of the messages incorporated information that would not or could
not have been available to Vern’s subconscious (please note Dr. Sadler’s
earlier statements about the subconscious).

Before changing emphasis to a second perspective on these
events I feel it important to comment briefly on observations of the few other
F.O.G. members we saw and interacted with during our brief visit. At various times different F.O.G. members
interjected comments in defense of Vern and, in particular, criticized what
they felt to be unfair criticisms of Vern that they had heard about. All of the F.O.G. members we saw seemed to
be busily involved with various preparations.
All seemed to be very supportive of Vern. I saw not an inkling of anyone raising questions as to the
validity of the messages. There seemed
to be ready acceptance not only of the content of the messages but of Vern’s
interpretations of these and related experiences. A leader is poorly served when those around him do not raise hard
questions as to the wisdom of the leader’s insights and pronouncements. I fear that the group dynamics in effect at
F.O.G. are not conducive to a questioning attitude or trenchant analyses of the
ongoing events.

At this point I wish to take a brief look at how these
messages compare and contrast with what is known about the UB revelations. We know, for example, that the BU
revelations were one in an inordinately careful, meticulous manner. Dr. Sadler began studying the person who was
utilized in the revelations in 1911, about 22-23 years before the fifth epochal
revelation was more formally delivered.
By 1929 Dr. Sadler had made about 250 carefully controlled observations
of the “transmitter person,” but he was still not 100% convinced of the
validity of these phenomena. He
conducted many and various tests to try to determine the validity of these
experiences. As I understand these
matters, the actual revelations did not begin until Dr. Sadler was convinced of
the validity of these phenomena. It is
also my understanding that (a) more than one person was always present during
the formal revelatory messages, (b) that a group of persons discussed the
messages and in some ways intellectually interacted with the celestial senders,
(c) that the senders always clearly identified themselves, their positions and
by whose authority they acted, (d) that the methods used by the senders were
not congruent with our understanding of auditory hallucinations; indeed, Dr.
Sadler was emphatic on this point in his paper of January, 1959 (“Some
Criticisms of the Urantia Book”) when he stated “The technique of the reception
of the Urantia Book in English in no way parallels or impinges upon any of the
above phenomena of the marginal consciousness” (sec. 10, P. 13), (e) that the
content was complex and contained many elements of thought that could not have
been contained in the transmitter’s (or anyone else’s subconscious, (f) that
explicit instructions were given that the transmitter was never to be
identified, and (g) that the UB revelation itself contains warnings against the
human tendency to overreact to one person in an adulatory way if that person is
perceived as having special knowledge or access to the gods. The above points are all characteristics of
the UB revelations, and they all seem to be at variance with the experiences
reported by Vern. It seems improbably
that our unseen friends would so radically depart from their prior, proven
methods of communication and engage in a process that they know would cause
schism, confusion, possible exaltation of one person, and that would so closely
approximate what we already know about auditory hallucinations. One might argue that radical means had to be
used because of the extreme urgency of the situation. But would it not have been an easy matter for the senders to
request that some other human beings be present to hear a message of such
profound importance so that it could be verified and cross-referenced? It seems improbable that our celestial
supervisors would be so incapable of at least approximating their former
methods, especially considering the importance of the message and their
profound understanding of how human beings react (and overreact) to
extraordinary events.

In light of all the above I must conclude that it is highly
doubtful that the messages received by Vern are valid revelations. I personally do not believe them to be so,
although there were times I the first few days after I first heard the news
that I was inclined to think they might be valid. The state of today’s world in combination with the high
visibility of the source are powerful factors that lend an aura of prima
facie validity to the messages. But
a careful analysis raises far more questions and doubts than answers. We are limited in such evaluations by human
frailty and human logic, but we can apply such techniques as the “law of
parsimony.” This law on inquiry
recommends that simpler, more basic explanations of phenomena be utilized in
place of more fanciful explanations that require considerable leaps of
assumption beyond the known facts.
There are many analogues to this law found in the UB. Most relevant are those admonitions in the
Book that warn us against interpreting extraordinary experiences as divinely
inspired insights and revelations when they can be just as readily explained as
the workings of our own minds (page 1,000, 1,099, 1,100, 1,207, etc.).

There is another nagging factor in all this that should be
commented on. It is often typical of
prophetic pronouncements that an “escape clause” is built into the
warning. The part of Vern’s messages
that an emergency son may be sent to intervene has an escape clause ring to
it. If the bombs fail to materialize
then the non-event will have to be explained.
Vern’s subconscious could resolve this dilemma by reflecting back that
an emergency son has arrived and is taking care of matters. I also noted that Vern was very sensitive
whenever the matter of timing was brought up:
“who knows when it will start?
It could be tomorrow, or 2 months, or years.” An escape clause may take any number of forms when the time
comes. Such a process would not be at
the conscious level but would be resolved at the subconscious level. Please refer to the initial quotes by Dr.
Sadler as to the intelligence and suppleness of the subconscious mind.

The conductance of this report has not been a pleasant
job. We are all well aware of the fine
work and many achievements of Vern.
Hopefully a way can be found so that Vern’s contributions to the fifth
epochal revelation may continue. In the
meantime, however, our first priority is the protection, maintenance and
enhancement of the revelation. Over the
past several days I have heard several people make statements to the effect that
“I do not know if Vern’s claims are valid but we can thank him for waking us up
to the realities of nuclear war and today’s world.” At the risk of sounding harsh I would suggest that such comments
represent false sentiment and an evasion of the critical, central question at
issue. Namely, the Urantia “movement”
now has a highly visible person who is claiming to be receiving important
messages directly from celestial beings.
Now either he is or he isn’t. We
recognize that these experiences are real to Vern and that he totally believes
in them. But each student t of the UB
should address this central question and derive the best answer he can. I am reminded of C.S. Lewis’ response to 20th
century intellectuals who, when confronted with the issue of the possible
divinity of Jesus Christ, often respond with statements such as “I don’t know
about his supposed divinity, but we have to acknowledge that he was a great
teacher for mankind.” Lewis retorted
(what follows is paraphrased) that such statements evade the central
issue: namely, Jesus Christ claimed to
be the Son of God; either he was what he claimed to be or he was a deluded
crank, a fraud. I feel there is much in
the present situation from which we may and should learn, but as UB students we
will not learn from this situation unless we deal with it head on.

Perhaps the most difficult thing to deal with in this
situation is the question of how good people, fine people, intelligent and
knowledgeable, can undergo such experiences.
I will close with a relevant quote from Dr. Sadler (The Mind at
Mischief, Page 20): “It is a fact
good-hearted people can honestly deceive themselves. There exists a definite mechanism which can be used by one part
of our mind (the subconscious) to deceive and mislead the other half of our
intelligence (the Conscious mind).”

P. D. K.

P.S. At the end of
our evening with Vern I told him that I thought he had been having auditory
hallucinations and that there was nothing that I could see in his experiences
that could not be explained within the current psychological understanding of
psychic phenomena. I also expressed to
him my perception of unhealthy group dynamics operative at F.O.G.
I asked him if he could re-evaluate his experiences in light of the
alternative explanation I was presenting him.
He replied that he had already addressed these issues in response to an
earlier letter from Meredith Sprunger, that he had prayed extensively on the
matter, and that he was “absolutely convinced” of the validity of his experiences. On this note our evening with Vern ended.